HC notice to Delhi Nursing Council, Centre on plea seeking voting rights for nurses

New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Monday sought responses from Delhi Nursing Council (DNC) and the Health Ministry on a plea seeking voting rights to nurses registered with the nursing body for electing office-bearers and executive committee.

A division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to the respondents over the petition filed by Indian Professional Nursing Association (IPNA) through advocates Robin Raju and Joel Joseph.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on December 13.

The petitioners submitted that the about 90,000 nurses registered with the DNC have no right to elect the representatives of a body that has been constituted, inter-alia, to work for their welfare. The denial of voting rights to them is nothing but sheer disregard of the fact that other professionals such as doctors, advocates and chartered accountants have voting rights in the election process of their respective councils, the plea contended.

The doctors registered in Delhi vote to elect members to Delhi Medical Council, it said further.

IPNA, through its petition, also sought directions to the nursing body to publish the annual income and its expenditure citing that the council has not bothered to even publish the audited summary in this regard on its website.

Nursing officers, the petition said, have multiple concerns connected with the council. The issues range from lack of basic amenities such as a washroom for the visitors in the council's building to dire need for relocating its office to a separate building from the existing premises that is having space scarcity.

The instant petition is not intending to elaborate on these issues, it further said.

Delhi Nursing Council -- a statutory body constituted by The Delhi Nursing Council Act, 1997 is supervised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.